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CFE Home What's Included in the CFE? Conferences and Schools Included Introduction: A Brief History of College Football
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 2007 Season SummaryOne of the most unpredictable seasons in college football history finished with a twice-beaten team winning the national championship for the first time since the BCS was instituted in 1998. Louisiana State capped a roller coaster season with a 38-24 win over No. 1-ranked Ohio State on January 7 in the Super Dome in New Orleans to give the Tigers their second BCS title in five years. It was also the first time a school had won two titles in the BCS system, although Nebraska won three under the previous Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance systems in the early and middle 1990s. LSU (12-2) finished first in both the AP and Coaches polls. The topsy-turvy season started when Appalachian State (of the newly minted Football Championship Subdivision in the NCAA Division I category) pulled off a stunning opening game 34-32 upset of Michigan in the "Big House." The regular season ended the first weekend of December when Missouri and West Virginia were knocked out of a title game match-up-Missouri losing to Oklahoma 38-17 in the Big 12 championship game and West Virginia being upended by unranked Pittsburgh 13-9. Both the Mountaineers and Tigers went on to bowl success, however, WVU whipping Oklahoma 48-28 in the Fiesta Bowl (despite Coach Rich Rodriguez absconding to Michigan shortly after the Pitt loss) and Missouri trouncing Arkansas 38-7 in the Cotton Bowl. The upsets continued in the rankings, where Missouri (12-2) finished 4th and 5th in the major polls, while WVU (11-2) finished 6th. Georgia (11-2) finished 2nd and 3rd after whipping previously unbeaten Hawaii (12-1) 41-10 in the Sugar Bowl and Ohio State (11-2) slipped to 4th and 5th after its loss to LSU. Southern California (11-2) finished 2nd in the Coaches poll and 3rd in the AP poll after whipping Illinois (9-4) 49-17 in the Rose Bowl. Appalachian State (13-2), meanwhile, won its third straight title in the formerly Division I-AA category with a 55-35 win over Richmond in the title game. Coach Jerry Moore also won his third straight Coach of the Year award for his division. The SEC was the most successful conference in bowls, finishing 7-2 in postseason play. In addition to LSU and Georgia, SEC bowl winners were Alabama (7-6), Auburn (9-4), Kentucky (8-5), Mississippi State (8-5) and Tennessee (10-4). In bowl games decided by 3 points or fewer, Utah (9-4) beat Navy (8-5) 35-32 in the Poinsettia Bowl, Brigham Young (11-2) edged UCLA (6-7) 17-16 in the Las Vegas Bowl, East Carolina (8-5) beat Boise State (10-3) 41-38 in the Hawaii Bowl, Purdue (8-5) beat Central Michigan (8-6) 51-48 in the Motor City Bowl, Boston College (11-3) edged Michigan State (6-6) 24-21 in the Champ Sports Bowl, Auburn (9-4) beat Clemson (9-4) 23-20 in overtime in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Texas Tech (9-4) beat Virginia (9-4) 31-28 in the Gator Bowl and Kansas (12-1) beat Virginia Tech (11-3) 24-21 in the Orange Bowl. The biggest runaways were Tulsa (10-4) over Bowling Green (8-4) 63-7 in the GMAC Bowl and Oregon (9-4) over South Florida (9-4) 56-21 in the Sun Bowl. The major National Coach of the Year awards went to Mark Mangino of Kansas and Ron Zook of Illinois. Among individual accomplishments, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy. Tebow won the Maxwell Award and the Davey O'Brien Award as well. On the defensive side, LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey won the Outland Trophy, the Bronko Nagurski Award and the Vince Lombardi Award. Other top individual award winners were:
College Football FansThe history of college football bowl games, including records, facts and anecdotes, can be found in Bowl Games: College Football's Greatest Tradition by Robert M. Ours, noted on this page with links to Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and publisher Westholme Publishing. The College Football Encyclopedia published in hardback and paperback in 1994 with CD-ROM updates through 2002, is no longer available except through used copies and second-hand bookstore outlets. The Encyclopedia, compiled by Dr. Ours, includes records through the 2001 season, with year-by-year scores of every game played by the 93 teams listed, star players yearly, conference titles won, bowl records, coaching records, top 25 national rankings, highest scores for and against, consensus All-Americans, Academic All-Americans, and much more. Also included are introductions to each of 9 major conferences, plus independents, including information on when the conference was formed, national championship teams and major individual award winners from that conference, plus anecdotal material involving members of the conference. More than 1,000 photos of past stars, representing each school listed, are included in the Encyclopedia. A special Appendix lists annual major individual award winners since 1935, team national champions since 1936, top coaching records, and team and individual single-season leaders in more than 20 categories. Copyright 2007. Robert M. Ours, author. Web site by Augusta Computer Services. CFE logo design by J.A.R. Enterprises. Cartoons used by permission of artists at AAA Internet Publishing and The Wizard of Draws [Return To Top] |
History of College Football Bowl Games now available!  For more information, see: Westholme Publishing Amazon.com Barnes & Noble "In Bowl Games: College Football's Greatest Tradition, author and historian Robert M. Ours provides a complete history of bowl games . . . . included are game highlights, scores, attendance figures and rationale for the birth and demise of new bowl games throughout the years. . . . the book serves as an outstanding reference for collegiate football collectors, . . . (and) is resplendent with period photographs."
"Bowl Games is the first work to focus solely and comprehensively on the history of college bowl games . . . Organized chronologically, the book presents information in both chapter and tabular format . . . The author writes well . . . The tabular data is easy to follow and contains the teams, records, results, and attendance for each bowl contest from 1902 to 2004. Also included are lists of overall team bowl records, bowl game performance records, and other useful data. This is a book for comprehensive sports reference collections." (Choice, April 2005) |